You look at that river gently flowing by. You notice the leaves rustling with the wind. You hear the birds; you hear the tree frogs. In the distance you hear a cow. You feel the grass. The mud gives a little bit on the river bank. It’s quiet; it’s peaceful. And all of a sudden, it’s a gear shift inside you. And it’s like taking a deep breath and going... ‘Oh yeah, I forgot about this.’
Those are the opening words – from the mouth of former Vice President Al Gore – to 2006’s documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” a film that sets out do discredit those who claim global warming is unproven or insignificant.
For many environmental activists, the movie – which tells the story of Gore’s own interest in climate change – marked a watershed moment in awareness of a problem whose severity remains under debate.
Yet however that debate runs – and it reared its head more than once during last year’s presidential race – the topic of climate change, a central issue to the larger concept of environmentalism, takes center stage this week as Earth Day approaches tomorrow.
Regardless of specific political or environmental leanings, we in the media recognize the timeliness of storylines that focus on all things “green” – and for those of us in the telecommunications space, that means “green technology.” At TMCnet, we’ve long dedicated a
page to green technology, host an industry-leading
blog on the subject and even carved out space on our
site for an Earth Day section.
Today, that site features an
article by Anuradha Shukla that examines the greenhouse gas-saving potential of teleworking, even for one day.
Shukla’s article, and Gore’s film, both focus on the only planet inhabited by the creatures that do the most polluting – humans. Yet they also put Earth into a larger context – what our company’s vice president Tom Keating (
News -
Alert), a fervent “Star Trek”
fan, might call a “galactic” context.
So, to honor Earth Day, I’m taking a look today at an
iPhone and iPod Touch application that features a branch of science that forms one pillar of environmental research: astronomy.
“Astronomy” is a free application (with the 2.2.1 software update) from
Natural Guides, LLC, a maker of location-aware apps for the iPhone (
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Alert). Released Feb. 2, the app includes fast facts about the solar system, and serves as a reference source and astronomy guide for planets, stars, constellations and the history of space travel.
Personally, astronomy is one of those subjects that – say, on a clear, starry night when I’m roaming around outdoors – I wish I knew more about. With this app in my pocket, I’ll feel a lot better about my ignorance.
The app is a good basic teacher about planet Earth and the solar system, with easy controls, fast look-up features and excellent illustrations. It includes an astronomy guide and details our attempts to learn more about the universe through satellites, probes, manned missions and explorations.
There’s an “image of the day” which today is a prediction for the next 100 years or so of temperature increases (take a look – sort of makes Gore sound like he knows what he’s talking about). That image changes every day, and there’s a feature that allows users to “share” the image with a friend.
By pressing the “share” button on the touch screen, users are directed to a page that quickly logs them in to Microsoft Exchange, mobileme, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL (
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Alert) and other e-mail accounts.
It’s one of the better free applications that I’ve found for the iPhone and iPod Touch, meaning it actually works and the content is useful and delivered clearly.
Give it a try.
Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users.
Michael Dinan is a contributing editor for TMCnet, covering news in the IP communications, call center and customer relationship management industries. To read more of Michael's articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by
Michael Dinan
